The Usticks: January 2009

Friday, January 30, 2009

blech!

i'm trying to find a good blog background... hopefully i'll stop changing it soon :-) stay tuned...

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

These are a few of my favorite things

Not a whole lot is going on here lately! Avery is still working on her two top teeth. They are definitely breaking the surface.. hopefully the discomfort will go away soon. She's had a few rough nights of sleep, but I'm sure it's due to those stinkin' teeth! Hey, nothing's bad in comparison to her first few months of "sleep" :-) !! I thought I'd just post a few pictures of the things Avery likes to play with most these days.. I mean chew on. I'm not sure there is anything she has touched and NOT put in her mouth!

Tags

Drums
Feet
Okay, this is just a funny face!
Daddy's gym sock (just washed, of course)
Old cell phone

Friday, January 23, 2009

TGIF

A post by Avery:

I'm so glad it's Friday. Wanna know why? Daddy gets to be home for 2 whole days! Boy, do I have a surprise for him when he comes home tonight! Mommy finally caught a sneak-peak at my mouth today and noticed my top two teeth are coming in. OUCH! They really hurt. Luckily I have fun toys to play with to keep my mind off of it. See, I'm happy!


Then mommy started tickling me and managed to take a picture of my mouth while I was giggling! I told her it wasn't a very flattering angle, but she wanted to make sure what she saw was real and not just her imagination! =) So, pardon the super cheeks and up-the-nose shot! But, hey... if I'm fussy lately it's because of those two new teeth coming!


Now mommy knows why I was doing THIS the other night :-) I was working on somethin'!


I'm excited to do this later tonight:


Because during the weekdays I'm always doing this:


Have you seen how well I sit up now?


Okay, that's all for now. I'm wiped out. And mommy says it's time for a nap.
Love, Avery

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

New sounds

Avery's been making this funny sound with her mouth a LOT lately. She's done it before, but she brought it back in full-force the other day.






Oh, and how cute is this??

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Hi, my name is...

My name is Avery and I have reflux. This is how my mommy often finds me after a nap:

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Saturday Night is Pizza Night

Brent decided he wanted to make deep dish pizza tonight for dinner. Who was I to object to this yummy-ness? We didn't really have a recipe to go off of except for a dough recipe in the bread machine. Let me tell you- It turned out SO good! Wow... Brent is officially the pizza maker in this house. We had a little extra pizza dough, so we also whipped up some garlic bread bites. Oh, and Avery turned 7 months old today!






Here's Avery showing off her skills... she can play AND yawn at the same time

Our little Patriots fan has to stay warm in this cold weather! (Hehe.. I know what you're thinking Krista, it's definitely summer here compared to you guys in North Dakota! ;-)

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Fun with toys

Things have been a little crazy here this week. Avery had a very uncharacteristically sad evening on Tuesday. She cried non-stop for a few hours (definitely seemed like an eternity to me and Brent!).. not even a car ride (which has always calmed her down) would stop the tears. Perhaps she got a little baby flu bug? She didn't want to eat or sleep either. After two nights of very restless sleep we seem to have rounded the corner. Thankfully things are much better today! We all got some much needed sleep last night!

Here are a few pictures from this week.






Oh, and here are the beautiful birthday roses from my hubby!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Shout out

Just have to give a quick shout-out to my dear friend and roommate Sarah and her blog... I happen to like her latest post =)

love ya girl!!!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

iPod

So I have this old iPod from college.. it's one of the ones without a color screen! Anyway, the screen has been broken for over a year, and amazingly it still played music. So I thought to myself... "could I fix it?" Brave, I KNOW! Well, I found the needed tools and replacement screen ALL for under 10 bucks on eBay. This morning I finally got it replaced. I found a video on You tube showing me pretty much how to do it (well, they used newer models.. I didn't know I'd have to unscrew stuff on mine). I got it all put back together and plugged it into my computer and voila! It works! I'm shocked.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Random Photo Challenge

I saw this on my friend, Leslie's blog, and I thought it would be fun! Go to May 2007 and post the 21st picture in that folder. Here's what I came up with:

This is Brent at the Grand Wailea in Maui. Look at that view!!

Ok, now it's your turn.. You do the same!!

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Our new baby

Ok, so it's not a real baby (did I have you fooled?!), but Brent & I got our new computer from Dell yesterday! Thanks to some Christmas money, we were able to afford this new computer! Our laptop was ancient.. and my desktop from college was even more ancient! We LOVE it! Here's a picture of the computer in our little "office nook" along with our desk and office chair where the TV used to reside. I might add that the desk took us over 3 hours to put together one night.. and yes, we didn't start it until like 11pm! Whoops! It fits so nicely in this little space and we moved the Fenway framed picture above the desk to finish out the space!

Avery & I went to City View park the other day after the rain stopped. I took my chance to snap a few photos of her sitting up with the beautiful sky in the background.




Oh, and just for the family, here are a few more of Avery B :-)



Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Just a few pictures!

Avery's been quite the girl on the move these days! Every time I look away for a second she's rolled over! With all the added activity during the day Avery is sleeping SO great at night! It took 6 months for her to sleep more than 2 hrs at a time, but boy... now all of a sudden we're getting 11-12 hours out of her a night. I think she knew it was time for her mommy to sleep in an actual bed.

Ok, here are some pictures from the last week or so.






Playing in the bathroom while I take a shower:

The miracle blanket.. or should I say the RETIRED miracle blanket!



A rare picture of Avery AND me!


Avery's ready for coffee!

I had bananas going bad!


INGREDIENTS

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
  2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
  3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Monday, January 05, 2009

Time for a recipe!


Classic Baked Macaroni & Cheese

(1) 8oz box elbow mac
2 TB butter
2 TB flour
2 Cups Milk
(1) 8oz block sharp cheddar cheese (or preshredded, of course!)
1 TSP salt
1/2 TSP pepper


1. prepare pasta & keep warm
2. melt butter over med-low heat; whisk in flour until smooth. Cook, whisking constantly for 2 minutes. gradually whisk in milk & cook (whisking constantly) for 5 min or until thickened (usually is a tad longer for me..) Remove from heat.
3. stir in salt, pepper, 1 CUP shredded cheese, & cooked pasta
4. spoon pasta mixture into a lightly greased 2-qt baking dish; top w/ remaining 1 cup of cheese
5. bake at 400 degrees for 20min or until bubbly. let stand 10min before serving.